Genesis

I've got a suggestion intended for the future when things are more stable, I will break it down.

Factions and Governments will work very similar but i'll point out some distinctions, Factions will be groups that are opted into, whilst governments will be'groups' that are planet wide and based upon residency on a planet, perhaps determined by which planet a character has spent the largest % of their time on. (Players could also declare themselves stateless but more on that later. Governments will be formed by player ranks, but can also be destroyed causing anarchy, which isn't as bad as it sounds it'd just be a planet with things as they are now.

Income,taxes and roles: Both governments and factions will be able to appoint roles, in which they can designate a specific duty which a member or citizen must fulfill, this will range from citizen with likely little to no obligations, and generally include custom roles that leaders will design, could be as simple as "Soldier" or "Chancellor" "General", etc. Roles will receive an income based on their position which could be dolled out in minerals or zenni, or a combination of both. Faction and government income used to pay roles will be generated via taxes as well as another late game mechanic I envision which will be mentioned later. The tax rate will be set by the planetary leader, or leaders. The taxes will not be automatically extracted from your inventory instead you'll receive a prompt at a preset interval asking whether you decide to pay or not, leadership will receive a list of those who did not pay. TI foresee this being able to spur a lot of roleplay as people will be truly incentivised to work towards their roles and earn themselves a stable income, I do find it quite odd that kings, god like fighters must all dig to sustain themselves, when really a lot of these figures would have backing and support structures in place realistically.

Government and Faction structure: As mentioned above briefly there can be "leaders" of a faction or planet, a faction/government does not need to be autocratic with one leader in place, there could be alternative systems where all citizens or members get to vote on tax rates, and faction/planet guidelines or laws, aka democracy. There could also be a system in which a smaller council of people get to vote akin to an oligarchy.

Income cont. and role of a citizen: Income will be derived solely from taxing other players just to enrich specific roles? That sounds rather horrible so no. (Unless they're under a truly tyrannical fool who will likely be deposed, more on this later.) Income can also be portioned out into multiple 'budgets' "Economic" and "Scientific" budgets. Economic budgets will be used to make investments in capturing and developing government and faction owned PoP's (Personal planets.) which the returns from said Pop's will be placed back into the income stream, thus delivering regular citizens even an increase on their yearly income. So if for example citizens recieve 0.5% of the planetary income per year, but contributing back in taxes that is then used to develop the income stream further they increase their potential earnings for the future. The scientific budget could be used by faction or government appointed scientists to build and maintain a communal cache of technology should the government/faction wish, this could also be role based and limited, for example, a citizen could have access to a fridge and capsule once per life time, whilst a "Soldier" role could be entitled too a sword, armor and scouter every five years or so, as technological advancements are made. The government/faction scientists would receive a small commission for each piece of equipment they produce. Governments or factions could also use their income stream to create communal buildings, such as a palace, housing or arena.

Replacing a government: Of course not everyone may be happy with their government or they may collectively decide they do not want one at all! Players will be able to create counter governments which they decide to opt into and by gaining a majority and deposing the current leader (through death, or use of admin intervention once they've ICly toppled their regime.) they can then decide to forge a new form of government, or erase the system all together and live freely. Once again, players could also decide to just be stateless from the very start, thus avoiding the disadvantages of governments but also losing the advantages, the choice is up to them.

Now this may sound convoluted or too ambitious to many but in reality once implemented it'd work behind the scenes in a simple manner really it's just a bunch of math i've expressed in creative terms designed to really stream line a lot of what people -already- try to establish ICly, but often times fail due to various reasons based on the capacity to organize things via the game mechanics. Some may also hate the idea, but again it'd be optional and in no way mandatory to participate.

I think this idea could be implemented partially or in segments if as a whole it would not fit hobbits wider plan for the game, or entirely not at all if it's seen as unnecessary clutter. But I felt it was an exciting idea and wanted to share it, I think it could promote RP for a lot of people,techies, leaders and the everyday person, it could give them something to aspire to within their lifetime.

Please discuss and give any feedback, very curious what people think.